The present invention relates generally to the commercial food services industry, and more specifically to a food serving and displaying system using a continuous water channel.
Within recent years, continuous revolving food serving systems have become quite popular in Japanese restaurants that serve sushi. These types of restaurants have come to rival traditional sushi restaurants in which patrons are seated at a bar to be served individually by the sushi chef. In the continuous revolving type of sushi restaurant, customers are seated around a circular or oblong bar. The bar contains a conveyor belt or similar type of continuously moving system to transport food items in front of the customers. The customers can choose and take the items they want, without having to place an order with the chef or wait staff. Similarly, the chef can prepare a set number of items without needing to respond to individual customer orders. This type of system results in an efficient food delivery service that has become popular for economy-oriented restaurants.
Early continuous revolving sushi restaurants typically utilized enclosed conveyor belts that transported individual sushi orders on small trays around a circular or oblong bar. To enhance the appeal of such systems, xe2x80x9csushi boatxe2x80x9d systems were developed that utilized a closed circular waterway. In these systems, sushi orders are placed on trays that are in turn placed on small boats that float along the waterway in front of customers seated around the bar. Typically a one-way current is used to propel the boats along the waterway. The boats are usually arranged so that a xe2x80x9ctrainxe2x80x9d of boats is formed with each boat closely following the boat in front. This allows for the continuous presentation of food and a regular flow of the boats so that customers can more easily pick food trays off of the moving boats.
Because of the unstable nature of floating boats on a waterway, care must be taken to ensure that the train of boats moves consistently and calmly around the waterway. It is relatively easy to upset the flow of the boats by stopping a boat in the waterway or disrupting the natural flow of current in the waterway. Several different systems have been developed for the arrangement of the boats in the waterways. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,032 to Imanaka discloses the in-line arrangement of sushi boats in waterway through the use of chains coupling the bow of one boat to the stern of the boat in front. In this manner, the connected boats circulate in concert around the waterway. Another example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,782 to Iwamoto, et al., which discloses an uncoupled arrangement of sushi boats in which a bumper device extending from the bow of each boat is used maintain a minimum distance between the boats. Although these disclosed systems address the issue of maintaining a predetermined spacing between the boats in the waterway, they do not address the problem of providing adequate stability to individual boats as they float along the waterway. Moreover, these present systems pose the problem of entanglement of boats with one another as they are pushed down the waterway and collide with one another. A further disadvantage of such present systems is that they add extraneous structures to the boats that detract from the aesthetic features of the boats.
A stabilizing system for individual food carriers in an enclosed continuous waterway food serving system is described. The food serving system comprises a plurality of boat shaped food carriers floating in the continuous waterway propelled by a current induced into the waterway. Each food carrier comprises one or more stabilizer bars affixed to a bottom surface of the food carrier and extending from the side of the food carrier to stabilize the food carrier from a rolling motion in the water. The stabilizer bars are constructed of clear plastic to hide their presence when the food carrier is placed in the waterway. Each food carrier further comprises a horizontal bar affixed to the stern end of the food carrier and configured to contact the bow of a following food carrier when the food carriers are deployed in the continuous waterway.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, each food carrier also comprises a first magnet attached to the bow of the food carrier and a second magnet attached to the stern of the food carrier. Repulsive magnetic forces between the bow magnet of a following food carrier and the stern magnet of the preceding food carrier maintain a minimum distance between the two food carriers.